World’s largest wind turbine manufacturer expands it focus to solar and battery systems

Vestas, the biggest turbine developer in the world aims to sell hybrid renewable facilities that will be capable of generating energy consistently 24 hours a day.

The Chief Executive Officer, Anders Runevad believes the move in focus is an emphasis of the business ‘broadening its scope within sustainable energy’. Runevard believes there is a rapidly growing increase in hybrid technology and is a revenue stream that Vestas wants to be a part of.

The leading wind business highlight that solar and battery storage will complement their existing projects by combining together to work in a hybrid plant. Energy generated from wind and solar sites can be stored and saved for a later time, reducing the requirement for fossil fuel back up generation to create energy when solar and wind sources may be intermittent.

Vestas is looking to become a market leader within the industry as global wind growth rates show signs of slowing due to industry consolidation. Vestas recently bought an analytics business called Utopus Insights which use artificial intelligence to forecast weather and energy outputs. Vestas is also working closely with a range of battery manufacturers, including Tesla to develop energy storage systems for wind turbines.

The Danish-based company will not be involved in the manufacturing of solar panels or batteries but will be able to supply all the equipment necessary to construct and maintain hybrid systems.

An analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence believes this shift of focus and rise of interest in hybrid highlights the new opportunities from the worldwide transition within the energy industry. It is also a similar move that has occurred with other businesses such as Siemens, Gamesa, Suzlon, and Goldwind.

Vestas is already in the process of developing its first hybrid project alongside Tesla and WindLab in Australia. Runevad believes the global hybrid market has the potential to be 2GW in size, which is relatively small to the 11.2GW of wind turbine installed by Vestas last year. Nevertheless, the market is growing rapidly and more businesses are looking to expand into the hybrid storage market.